Splash Pad Big Hit In Plainville Park

PLAINVILLE — Squirts of cool water from the ground. Showers of water from overhead pipes and buckets on swivels. Perfect to enjoy on a hot summer day.

Dozens of children have done so since 10 a.m. Monday at Paderewski Park, where the town's first splash pad has opened.

Each day until September, the new attraction built on the site of a defunct wading pool will splash water on anyone who wanders across the concrete pad within range of the embedded nozzles in the pad and the overhead showerheads and buckets.

"I've visited it a few times Monday and twice today. Every time there were a lot of children and families there," recreation director Colin Regan said Tuesday. "We're very pleased with it. It's such a good improvement from the old wading pool, which could no longer be used."

The contractor who built the pad this spring finished the main work last week and is making some last-minute tweaks to the system. One was to make sure the program that turns the water flow on and off is set to begin at 10 a.m. daily and shut off at 7 p.m. at night.

The pad also has a water saving feature. If no one uses the pad for five minutes or more, the water automatically shuts off until someone presses a button on the pad. Regan said that button will be marked so people using the pad can keep the water flowing while using it.

"This way, the water doesn't go on if no one is using it," Regan said. "From what we've seen, the kids have a feel for it, but we'll mark the spot better."

Monday afternoon, a dozen well-soaked boys and girls ran around the pad under the gaze of a watchful, dry adults on the grassy sidelines.

"It's good. They want to play in the water. They can't do this in a pool," Crystal Powell said as she watched her three children Alex, Chase and Bella on the splash pad.

Lisa Burby of Plainville, there with her children and with a visiting friend from Manchester with her son, said she came here Friday, thinking the splash pad would be open. The crew working on the pad turned on the water for an hour, she said, so the many children who were there could try it out. The workers also showed the kids a dump truck and made it a special day for the families there too early.

"Those guys were awesome," Burby said.

Just then, her daughter Ana, 5, sprinted by.

"Mom, it's the best ever here," a soaked Ana said, jetting off to the shower section.